Critical Review
Blowpop Records is a rare artwork made by the renowned British street artist Banksy in 1999. Using black acrylic and spray paint on record sleeve, this artwork was created early in the artist’s career and comes in an edition size of 100. Against a white backdrop made of cardboard, Banksy uses a stencil to produce an image of a matador waving a cape. Instead of attracting a raging bull, the matador is enraging a car. Banksy humorously adds bull horns to the roof of the car, making it resemble a bull.
At the top of the composition, Banksy writes ‘Blowpop Records’ in stencil capital letters. This name refers to the Bristol-based music label that the Capoeira Twins were signed to. Banksy produced this image for a limited release of one of the Capoeira Twins’ electronic music records. 100 copies of the record cover designed by Banksy were given to notable DJs all over the UK for free and each cover was hand stencilled by the artist himself.
The artwork captures the essence of Banksy’s wit which shines through in many of his artworks. Merging the matador and motor car in one image, the artist takes two traditional symbols of masculinity and romanticised Spanish ‘machismo’. Throughout his artistic career, Banksy has collaborated with a variety of English artists by designing their album covers, notably Blur’s seventh album, Think Tank.
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